Kickass torrents, popular with Indians, shutdown after alleged founder's arrest

Kabali kicked Kickass off the Internet — was trending for a while on social media on Thursday, more reflective of Rajinikanth hype than any basis in fact. Also trending: searches for the best alternatives to Kickass.

On Thursday, the US Department of Justice seized 7 domain names associated with Kickass Torrents — arguably the most visited piracy site — and charged the alleged ringleader with criminal copyright infringement.

The operator was also charged with money laundering and distributing over $1 billion of illegally copied films, music, video games and other content.

The US said Ukrainian Artem Vaulin, 30, had been arrested on Wednesday in Poland and that it would seek his extradition. Vaulin allegedly owns Kickass Torrents, which has been operating since 2008.

From Anurag Kashyap’s Udta Punjab to multi-million dollar Hollywood productions such as Captain America: Civil War, Now You See Me 2, Independence Day: Resurgence and Finding Dory, US officials said Kickass Torrents or KAT had consistently listed movies still playing in movie theatres that could be downloaded using file-sharing apps.

Kickass had overtaken The Pirate Bay to become the biggest source of pirated media after legal action against the site. As per the official charges, Kickass offered “a sophisticated and user-friendly environment in which its users are able to search for and locate content” that is protected by copyright.

Torrent sites allowed users to download shows such as Game of Thrones, Madmen, Narcos, House of Cards, Mozart in the Jungle and Bosch within hours of broadcast or release. That forced Indian TV networks like Star, Zee and Viacomowned Colors Infinity to shorten the lag between their US debut and India telecast dates. It also encouraged companies such as Netflix to set up shop in India.

“Thanks to social media, the awareness of the international movies and shows has increased. So if we don’t air it close to their US release, viewers have the option of downloading it from torrent sites. That’s why broadcasters had to reduce the window,” said Vivek Srivastava, business head, English cluster, Times Network. “These sites also affect the monetisation opportunity of rights holders.

Kickass, according to UK-headquartered web traffic intelligence company Similarweb, was the most popular website in the arts and entertainment category in India. Among all websites in the world, its kat.cr URL was the 54th most popular. In India it ranked at a high 13 overall.

Needless to add, it was also the biggest pirate website in India with a total of 253.5 million visits between April and June 2016 from the country. On average, 84 million Indian users frequented the site. According to Alexa, 24.6% of visitors to kat.cr came from India, ahead of the US, which constituted 14% of the site’s overall traffic, followed by Pakistan (3.1%), Australia (2.9%) and Canada (2.8%), respectively. Torrent sites are a threat to the entertainment industry, said filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

“These torrent sites are like a structural assault on India’s soft power. We are sending a letter to (national security adviser) Ajit Doval seeking his time to talk about this issue,” Bhatt said. “Everyday we producers wake up to the horror of our content getting leaked online.”

In recent months, films such as Udta Punjab and Great Grand Masti both leaked before their theatrical releases. Udta Punjab was leaked on June 15 and by June 24, it was downloaded 916,443 times. Total illegal views as of June 24 stood at 1.63 million. Total cumulative downloads/illegal streams stood at 2.55 million.

“Kickass was a tough nut to crack. It going offline means there will be a setback, even if shortlived, to all the supporters of such sites,” said a film producer.

Affordability & access

Affordability and access are the key to beating illegal downloads, said Devraj Sanyal, chief executive officer, Universal Music Group, South Asia.

“The arrest sends a very strong and clear message,” he said. “I believe a jail sentence alone is not going to solve the issue, but strong action coupled with price parity will. We have to give access to content easily and at an affordable price.”

Kickass earned around $17 million a year from advertising, according to media reports. Between August 2015 and March 2016, the site is said to have got 28,411,357 euros in deposits. Federal agents busted Vaulin after posing as potential advertisers on Kickass. But illegal torrent sites are unlikely to die out.

“There will be a temporary dip, but I am not sure if it will curb piracy,” said Amardeep Singh, CEO at Interactive Avenues, a digital media agency part of IPG Mediabrands. Others will pop up in its place, said Harshil Karia, managing director of digital solutions agency Schbang.

For telcos, the taking down of Kickass will have little impact. “We don’t see any impact on overall video consumption. It will have marginal impact on data revenue, since people mainly do live streaming of videos and songs over mobile Internet,” Cellular Operators Association of India’s Director-General Rajan S Mathews said.